Obama Calls for Govt. Apps as Part of Digital Strategy

On Thursday, President Obama ordered each branch of the federal government to develop at least two apps, providing access to essential services on mobile phones.

On Thursday, President Obama ordered each branch of the federal government to develop at least two apps, providing access to essential services on mobile phones.

Obama also said that it will continue to work hard to make greater amounts of data available to the public, as part of a digital strategy that will use the data to create more opportunities.

The administration also said that it would create a "Presidential Innovation Fellows program" to bring in outside talent and ask them to make health, education, energy, safety, and personal finance information that the government already collects more accessible and consumer-friendly. The newly-appointed U.S. chief technology officer, Todd Park, will oversee the operation.

"Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device," Obama said in a statement. "By making important services accessible from your phone and sharing government data with entrepreneurs, we are giving hard-working families and businesses tools that will help them succeed."

Managing the flow of information and making it more digestible to consumers not only benefits Americans, but creates jobs, Obama said. For his part, Park invoked the transfer of GPS satellite technology from the military to the private sector, a huge creator of jobs.

"The release of government weather and GPS data has already led to countless entrepreneurial innovations, which have made life easier for America's families while also creating multi-billion-dollar industries and generating jobs," Park said in a statement. "The initiatives we're launching today will make government data resources even more accessible to the public and to entrepreneurs who can turn these data into services that can help Americans find the best doctor for their family, choose the college that offers them the most value for their money, save money on their energy bills through smarter shopping, and much more."

In January, Obama sent Congress a proposal intended to assist startups and small businesses. The effort, dubbed the Startup America Legislative Agenda, would rework small business taxes, facilitate new funding options, and look to broaden the pool of foreign-born entrpreneurs allowed to start businesses in this country.

Mark Hachman Mark joined ExtremeTech in 2001 as the news editor, after rival CMP/United Media decided at the time that online news did not make sense in the new millennium.
Mark stumbled into his career after discovering that writing the great American novel did not pay a monthly salary, and that his other possible career choice, physics, required a degree of mathematical prowess that he sorely lacked.
Mark talked his way into a freelance assignment at CMP’s Electronic Buyers’ News, in 1995, where he wrote the...
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